I know what you’re thinking. Who cares what he thinks? Didn’t Tommy Tuberville fire him at Auburn four years ago Monday, six games into the 2008 season, less than a year after hiring him? Didn’t hiring Franklin help get Tuberville fired?

Yes, but wrong place, wrong time isn’t the story of Franklin’s career. What is? His offenses tend to roll up yards and points, and his teams tend to win games.

It’s happening again in his third year as the offensive coordinator for Sonny Dykes at Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs are 5-0, matching the best start in school history, and they’re ranked No. 23 by the AP and No. 24 by USA Today. Get by Texas A&M Saturday, and they could run the table.

How has Tech won three road games already against three teams that played in bowl games last year? By outscoring almost everyone in the country by running Franklin’s offense somewhere close to perfection.

The Bulldogs are No. 11 in total offense at 523.4 yards a game and No. 3 in scoring offense at 53.2 points a game. Louisiana Tech averages more points a game than Auburn has scored combined in its four losses. The Bulldogs fired off 97 snaps in their 58-31 win over UNLV last weekend.

“That’s our No. 1 goal every week,” Franklin said. “To be the fastest team in America.”

Here’s where Franklin’s philosophical differences with Saban get good. Remember what the Alabama coach said last week in the wake of West Virginia 70, Baylor 63?

"I think that the way people are going no-huddle right now, that at some point in time, we should look at how fast we allow the game to go in terms of player safety," Saban said. “That's when guys have a much greater chance of getting hurt when they're not ready to play.”

Franklin’s response: “It’s probably the farthest thing from the truth. The thing that causes more injuries is lining up and getting more people in piles. The best way not to get people hurt is to spread the field and move the ball around.”

OK. It would help to see data on when injuries occur, but Saban made the hurry-up no-huddle a larger issue when he said, “I just think there's got to be some sense of fairness in terms of asking is this what we want football to be?"

Franklin’s response: “The most hilarious thing about the timing of those comments is anybody who watched New England play Denver (Sunday).”

Tom Brady and the Patriots, running a hurry-up no-huddle, ran off 89 snaps and set a franchise record with 35 first downs in beating the Broncos 31-21. Oh, and the Patriots are coached by one of Saban’s best buds, Bill Belichick.

“New England is the best offense in the NFL for one reason,” Franklin said. “They play like colleges do. They play no-huddle, fast-tempo, they change tempos and they do what they have to do to win. I think Belichick would probably disagree with his buddy.”

Franklin said he hopes this season ends with an Alabama-Oregon BCS Championship Game because “it’ll be a great thing to watch two different strategies go after each other.”

That’s Tony Franklin. He’s not afraid to say what he thinks no matter who’s listening. Who else would go on a Birmingham radio show, disagree with Nick Saban, mention Mike DuBose as an inspiration for the no-huddle Alabama ran at times during the 2000 Orange Bowl and credit “my good friend” Rush Propst for setting a trend by winning state titles with the no-huddle at Hoover High?

“It’s the great equalizer,” Franklin said. “People say Baylor can’t play defense. You know what? Before Art Briles got there, they couldn’t play offense, either, and they couldn’t win games. Now all of a sudden, Baylor can beat people because they can outscore people.

“Obviously if you can line up and you’ve got better players than everybody else and play great defense and eat clock and win as many games as you can, that’s a great way of playing football, too. The problem is, 95 percent of us don’t have that type of talent to do that.

“So when they fall into that trap of saying, ‘Here’s how Alabama has won championships. Here’s what we should do,’ to me, that’s the trap that Coach Saban would want everybody to fall into because, the reality of it is, he’s going to have better players most of the time.”

Was that a shot, unintended or otherwise, at Gene Chizik’s move from the spread to a pro-style offense? Franklin did say that Scot Loeffler is a good football coach that needs time to install a new system at Auburn.

“But you don’t get time in the SEC and at Auburn,” Franklin said.

He would know.

Drop a civil comment below. Write Kevin at scarbinsky@gmail.com. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/KevinScarbinsky. Listen to him weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on the Smashmouth Radio Network on ESPN 973 The Zone.